The TeamVodafone driver was consistently quick throughout the weekend and despite finishing with two solid top 10 results, was unlucky to have not been further up.

Craig qualified well within the top 10 for both races setting himself up for a good weekend. In Race 13 he struggled early with the car balance, but as is typical of this season, charged through the field to finish in seventh place.

Race 1 featured both the hard and soft option tyre and Craig utilised a late stop strategy in order to maximise the speed of the soft tyre at the end of the race.

Unfortunately a pit-stop drama lost him valuable time and he would eventually finish in fifth place, to stay third in the championship race.

“I always enjoy coming to Darwin and this weekend was no exception,” Craig said.

“I would have like to have challenged for victory, especially on Sunday, but a few things didn’t go our way this weekend. I’m particularly happy that the car balance on the hard tyre was very good here, which I think is a good sign for the rest of the season.

“Realistically I think we could have been on the podium, but it didn’t turn out that way. I’m looking forward to Townsville now and I can’t wait to get another strong result there in a few weeks time.”

FRIDAY
It was a case of business as usual for Craig and TeamVodafone on Friday, as they worked through a variety of changes in order to find a good set-up for Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday.

While the weekend will see both the hard and soft compound tyres being used, Craig chose to concentrate his set-up on the hard tyre for much of the session.

The day saw four V8 Supercar sessions in total, with Craig appearing in Practice 1 to trial a new rear differential for V8 Supercars’ ‘Car of the Future’, before returning in sessions three and four.

Craig finished the day with the 13th fastest time and a good understanding of the changeable track conditions in Darwin.

“I started a lap but we didn’t really get the tyre set up right, so we opted to save the tyres for tomorrow," Craig explained.

“We’ve made a number of changes to the car, some of them I felt, some of them I didn’t feel.

“Unfortunately, due to tyre degradation, it was a little hard to get an indication of balance but it’s encouraging, the car is working really well on a used set of tyres.”

SATURDAY
Craig showed from the get-go that his Friday times were not indicative of how competitive the #888 Commodore is at the Hidden Valley Circuit.

The team elected to bank a time early in the session, but the pace saw Craig have to set another time late in the session to guarantee a start in the Top 10 Shootout.

In the shootout, Craig again struggled to produce a clean lap, using used tyres and emerged with a starting position of ninth.

In the race, Craig initially lost ground to the leaders, but pushed on with a long first stint.

The combination of speed and consistency allowed Craig to emerge from the pits in a strong position and with good tyre life towards the end of the race.

In a tactic the team has employed successfully so far this season, he charged through with fresher tyres to finish in seventh position, just behind the battle for fifth.

Mark Winterbottom won Race 13 of the championship ahead of Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen.

“We have now run the worst of our tyres and the car balance came good towards the middle of the race, which meant we could attack,” Craig said.

“I had a great battle with Tim Slade and James Courtney but as the tyres went off I just couldn’t find a way around them.

“The biggest plus for us is that we have now used the odd batch of tyres and we have all good tyres for tomorrow.”

SUNDAY
With Sunday featuring just a stand-alone 20-minute session, Craig once again proved just how consistent the #888 Commodore is by producing multiple quick laps.

A late flurry of laps from the TeamVodafone driver moved him into a seventh place starting position for Race 14 of the series.

The race proved to be an eventful one for Craig right from the get-go, after he made a slow start with too much wheelspin.

Craig was one of only a few drivers to start the race on the hard compound tyre and in doing so dropped back initially as drivers on the soft compound moved forward.

Heading into the final pit-stop Craig looked in a good position to secure another podium finish, but a wheel change mix-up in the pits saw him lose valuable time.

By races’ end he had charged back to fifth position on the soft tyre, while Whincup won the race ahead of Winterbottom and van Gisbergen.

"I got a lot of wheel spin off the start then got swamped into the first turn which lost me a few spots," Craig explained.

"The car balance was good on all sets (of tyres) but I started to get understeer at the end of each run. The last pitstop cost me a lot of time and I pushed as hard as I could, I definitely didn't have anything left at the end, the rears were gone.

"It was an eventful race so to be honest I was happy to finish fifth and we maintained third placing in the championship.”

2010 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (after seven events)
1. James Courtney, Jim Beam Racing, 1698
2. Jamie Whincup, TeamVodafone, 1641
3. Craig Lowndes, TeamVodafone, 1452
4. Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing, 1412
5. Mark Winterbottom, Ford Performance Racing, 1344
6. Garth Tander, Toll-Holden Racing Team, 1242
7. Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel’s Racing, 1226
8. Lee Holdsworth, Fujitsu Racing, 1218
9. Michael Caruso, Fujitsu Racing, 1139
10. Steven Johnson, Jim Beam Racing, 1040